From Beginning to End ReVamp
by madamwolf
Summary: Ever wonder what the famous Marauders did in their school years? Their hardships? With the rise of Voldemort, classes, girls, and pranks it couldn't have been easy. Follow them and learn their story. Rewritten version of an older story of mine.
1. How it Began

AN: As promised here is the first chapter of the revamped From Beginning to End, if you read the other one you'll already notice some huge differences. However I have one little thing, The Black family is very confusing as seeing as all pure blood families are somehow related James and Sirius should be related as well. I know it's probably not accurate but that whole area is fuzzy; J.K. never really gave us clear instruction on James' parents and stuff as far as I know. I'm using what information I have, and this is fanfiction I can do what I want!

So with that said, enjoy the story, if you have any questions as to why things are changed just ask I would be happy to answer them.

How it Began

The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, one of the most prestigious pure blood families of the Wizarding World, probably only second to the Malfoys. Walburga Black, a middle-aged woman with long, thin black hair and whose face was stretched against her bones, like she was horribly malnourished was known for her incredible distaste of anyone or anything who isn't a pure blood wizard. She would often voice this opinion in the general public without worry of offending much to her oldest sons distaste.

Her husband and also second cousin, Orion Black, was too a very thin man with shoulder length thin hair that had a slight curl to it. His face was pale against his hair and held a neatly trimmed mustache. He was fairly tall and walked with a certain aura to him that clearly stated he thought he was better than the general population.

These two snotty Blacks bore two children, two boys, Sirius and Regulus Black. They had hoped their children would uphold their family honor and make their parents proud. Regulus though he was the younger brother was already making his parents favor him over his older brother who seemed to not want to abide by the family rules.

Sirius, unlike his brother, consorted with Muggles, mudbloods, half bloods and even treated lesser beings like house elves with respect. His parents tried their hardest to keep their son on the Black path and keep him like one of the family but he just kept straying further and further. His parents blamed that damned Potter family, another pure blood family, but this family did not act like purebloods. Walburga's Aunt Dorea married Charlus Potter, a pure blood who acted more like a Mudblood, an absolute disgrace that family was. Unfortunately Walburga's son Sirius and Dorea's son James, met at a family reunion the Potters held several years prior. They didn't expect any of the Blacks to show up, but when Andromeda Black came walking in with her favorite little cousin they were happily surprised and the boys Sirius and James had been nearly inseparable since.

Sirius spent nearly every free weekend he had over the Potters house or with his cousin, his weekdays were filled with studies, though he wasn't in school yet his father insisted he learn and be prepared. Also, it was a good time to fill his sons head with pure blood supremacy talk which Sirius used to believe like his brother did, until his cousin Andromeda began taking him out in the real world and he met the Potters. Even at eleven he couldn't believe three years ago he had been a dense stereotypical pureblood. The thought made him shudder.

But all that was behind him now, not long ago he received his acceptance letter to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizadry. It wasn't they thought otherwise, he displayed magical abilities and a young age and already showed massive talent in potions. But it was nice to receive the letter. This also meant Sirius could finally leave his depressing home at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place and live at Hogwarts for half the year with James. He just hoped they were sorted into the same house.

Sirius arrived at platform 9 ¾ with the rest of his family, Regulus too even though he wasn't going to be attending Hogwarts just yet. He shied away from his parents who were recoiling from the people around them as though they all had some horrible skin virus. Only being eleven Sirius was not terribly tall so he had to crane his neck in order to see over the dozens of people around him to try and get a glimpse of James who he was sure was here. Maybe he was already on the train, he mused to himself.

"Now darling," Walburga said in a strained deep voice facing her son. "Please, do _try_ and get in the Slytherin. We really don't need you embarrassing the family further."

"I can't really control that, mother," Sirius mumbled as he pushed past some teenagers on the platform. It was a bit hard getting by with everyone who had their own school supplies all packed on their trunks, many who had owls perched on top in cages making it a very noisy place with all the talking and trains added.

"If you ask me," his father drawled. "There shouldn't be any other house other than Slytherin. All rubbish the rest of them, and please remember that if you are in them you will be considered rubbish too, Sirius, do you understand?"

"Yes, father."

"You are named after my grandfather, a proud and noble Black. You will do him proud just as you will do me proud, do you understand?"

"Yes, father."

"Very well," Orion said gazing forward before sneering at a young girl who ran past him carrying a muggle backpack over her shoulders. "Urg," he groaned staring at her. "Disgusting."

Sirius rolled his eyes and watched the girl. She had long dirty blond hair and wore muggle clothes, there was a calico cat at her heels. Another older woman then came running by pushing a cart with a trunk, Sirius could only assume this was her mother, he wondered if this girl was a first year as well.

"Pure rubbish," his mother said outloud making Regulus who was walking between his parents giggle.

"Half blood I bet," Regulus sneered.

Their father grinned. "Very good son, how did you come to that conclusion?"

"Obviously they are fluent in the ways of Muggles judging by their clothes and silly pack the girl was wearing. Her mother had a wand in her back pocket so she's a witch, though perhaps a poor excuse for one."

Their fathers grin broadened, Sirius found it sickening how he was teaching his sons to tell pure bloods, muggle borns, and half bloods apart. Though, three years ago Sirius probably would have acted the same way his brother did.

"Sirius!"

Startled Sirius jumped slightly at the shout of his name. James? That was defiantly his voice but he couldn't find him.

"James?" Sirius called.

"Oh dear," Walburga groaned rolling her eyes. "Not that horrid boy, Sirius Orion Black I do not want you consorting with such people, that boy is a bad influence."

Little did his parents know that whenever Sirius said he was going over to 'Dromeda's house he was really going to visit James. Not that they liked Andromeda better, but at least she was a Slytherin and hadn't dishonored their family yet. Though she did act less like a pure blood than they would have liked.

Sirius scoffed, James was the best influence he ever had. "Alright mother, father, I think I got a handle on things from here I'm gonna head off."

"Right," Walburga said bending over and giving her son a cold kiss on the forehead. "Study hard and do us proud, Sirius."

"Yes, mother."

"Remember," Orion said holding up a finger. "Slytherin," he said before giving Sirius a pat on the shoulder.

"Yes, father."

"Remember," his mother said. "Should you need help Narcissa and Andromeda are still in school, Bellatrix has already graduated. Please do favor toward Narcissa, her sister is a bit odd if you ask me."

"Yes, mother, yes." Sirius said waiting for his parents to be done so he could be off with his friend.

"Good," she said coldly. "Do you love your mother?"

"Yes," Sirius sighed.

"Good, now off with you."

"Goodbye," Sirius said through gritted teeth. Goodness, the Blacks were not very good at emotional goodbyes were they? He could help but feel slightly envious as he watched the other mothers and fathers hug their children goodbye with teary eyes. He'd bet those children were embarrassed as anything for their friends to see them with their parents like that, but Sirius would have given anything for his mother and father to show him even an ounce of affection that wasn't ice cold.

He followed the voice of James for a few moments before spotting him waving his arms in the air like a lunatic. His parents stood behind him grinning at their son. Dorea and Charlus Potter, slightly older in their years to be having a first year son, they were both already in their early fifties. But they still remained youthful in their appearances, the only sign of Dorea's age was the grey strands in her hair and the age lines on her face. Charlus looked as though he could still rough house with his young son well, and Sirius knew this to be fact as he too had wrested with him as though he were his own father.

"James!" Sirius called out as he began to jog toward him pushing his heavy cart.

"Sirius!" James called as he ran over to his friend, they hadn't seen each other in a months time and they were beginning to miss ther others company, it wasn't often Sirius had a free weekend and excuse to "visit his cousin Andromeda".

James's parents followed closely behind their son. "Good morning Sirius," Dorea said with a kind smile. "We've missed you at the house,"

"Yeah," Sirius said with a halfhearted shrug. "It's been hard to escape mother and father."

After giving him a small but sad smile Dorea sighed, she knew what it was like in the Black house. "Well now that you two have found one another you'd better hurry," she ushered them along. "You'll miss the train, the first whistle has already blown."

"Right!" James cried. "Thanks mum, bye!"

"Hold on their, son." Charlus chuckled. "Get over here."

James rolled his eyes and trudged back to his parents who each gave him a long hug and some kind words. His mother even handed him a care package for the long train ride, she even order than he include Sirius in on its sweets inside.

"We love you," Dorea said with a smile.

"Love you too," James sighed grinning a little. "Bye mum, bye dad." he told them.

"Bye, bye, boys!" Dorea said waving. "Good luck in school! Write us!"

"We will, mum!" James called after her as another whistle on the train blew.

"Better hurry," Sirius grinned. "You excited?"

James smiled back. "You have no idea! We're finally going to Hogwarts!"

"ALL ABOARD!" The man at the train yelled and the boys quickly pushed their luggage onto the train.

Suddenly they felt very small, surrounded by tall teenage boys and girls as they walked along they became painfully aware that they were only eleven. They got shoved several times with nothing more than a sideways glance, one of the shoves they received got them anything more than that and it was not from someone Sirius wanted to see.

"Hello, Cissy," Sirius grinned falsely as he faced Narcissa Black, his youngest cousin.

"Sirius, Andromdea told me you'd be here somewhere, I think she's looking for you." Narcissa was a tall, pale blond girl in her fifth year at Hogwarts, she was sorted into Slytherin house along with the rest of the family.

"Great!" Sirius said looking around as though he would spot her right away. "You know where she is?"

Narcissa shrugged. "No idea, I don't really care either, she's off with her new boyfriend. Don't tell mum and dad, but he's a muggle-born!" She said as though this were a hot piece of gossip. "She's kept it a secret so far, but if Bella finds out mum and dad will disown her for sure!" She squeaked with a giggle as she turned away from her cousin. "I'll see you around, Sirius!"

James watched in shock, he had never met any of Sirius' family, but he knew they were proud pure bloods. Sirius often described them as pricks. "That's your cousin? I get what you mean… pure blood and all that, she acted like dating a muggle born was a terrible thing."

Sirius snorted. "Wait till you meet Bellatrix, though if you're lucky you never will." He murmured as they made their way down the isle way to a compartment.

They passed several filled with older students, they wanted one on their own but were so far not having much luck, they would probably have to share. One compartment they passed was only occupied by two girls, the dirty blond Sirius saw earlier and a brunette. They both looked like first years as well but they were loud and giggling in their compartment, the calico cat dangling from above them pawing at the clip in the brunette's hair. Right away Sirius shook his head.

"No." He said right away and moved along to the next one.

The next one only has one boy in it. A first year it looked like too, he had his legs drawn up to his chest and was slouching low in his seat. The boys figured this one was better than the giggling girls so they stepped in.

"Hey, mate," James said clearing his throat. "You mind if we share?"

The boy turned at them slightly startled, like he wasn't used to people addressing him. "Uh, sure." He said before turning back to the window.

"Great,' Sirius said and pushed his way in shoving his luggage in the storage area with James. "I'm Sirius, Sirius Black. This is James Potter. We're first years, you?"

He seemed to have to think about it for a second. "Remus Lupin, first year too."

"Well, hello Remus," James smiled. "Wonderful to meet you."

Remus gave a small smile, his had tawny hair and brilliant blue eyes. He had dark circles under his eyes and was quite scrawny, but there was something about him that Sirius just couldn't put his finger on that made him different somehow.

There was an awkward silent for several minutes as they felt the train jolt forward and they began to move. James looked out the window to see his parents waving goodbye to him, he waved back. He also saw Remus give a small wave to a man and woman who were standing side by side, no doubt his parents. He didn't bother to look for his own, they weren't there, they were probably off treating Regulus to a new broom or something.

"And we're off," James said barley able to contain a grin of excitement.


	2. Excitement Already

Remus sat in the corner of the compartment as far away from the other boys as he could manage, his parents warned him to be careful getting too close to anybody, well his mother warned him. His father was a muggle born, so needless to say he didn't understand Remus's _condition_ as well as his mother did, though over the past five years he was getting a better idea.

It wasn't that they told him to not make friends, actually they encouraged that the most, ever since the incident Remus was having trouble keeping any. They had to move twice before they found a town with decent enough people in it to not shun the boy when they all heard the howls at night and discovered what he was. They had to move twice before they found a town they could settle in without too much worry. It wasn't that people didn't know, it wasn't hard to figure out after a while, but they either weren't too bothered by it or they did not voice their opinions, Remus had a feeling it was a combination of both.

It was a nice little town; they had a small one story cottage with an attic that was converted into Remus's bedroom. However there was no one around Remus's age so he didn't have to many friends even here, the closest children around were one boy who was four years his junior and two twin girl two years older, but they went to Beauxbatons Academy of Magic so whatever friendship they had died when the girls went away to school.

So, you couldn't really blame Remus for being weary of these two slightly obnoxious boys who he was now sharing a compartment with. It wasn't that he didn't want them to be his friends; since they were first years too he was bound to see them a lot, even if they were in separate houses. He figured he probably should be friendly with them so with a content sigh he sat up in his seat and put his feet his feet down on the floor.

"So," Remus began but wasn't able to get anything else out before they heard a shout from down the corridor. "What was that?" He asked aloud as the three boys got up and poked their heads out the door.

They could see that many of the other students were doing this as well, including the two girls next to them.

"The heck," they heard the dirty blond murmur under her breath, the cat was at her feet looking ready.

Another shout, this one sounded pained, James and Sirius immediately set out to investigate. Remus stayed behind for a moment before deciding on following them down the train. They walked past several compartments and finally reached one where there was a small group gathered outside of it. James pushed past several other students until he could see inside, there was a short, chubby boy inside with blond hair and hovering above him was another boy with long blond hair past his shoulders. He was defiantly older, maybe sixth or seventh year.

James turned around. "This poor kids getting beat up." He said and Sirius jumped up in the air so he could catch a glimpse of what was happening.

"Hardly been on the train fifteen minutes and already we're seeing action," Sirius laughed, still unable to see what was happening.

Remus remained quiet behind him, shouldn't someone go help the boy? Well someone should, but it certainly wasn't going to be him. Don't stick out in a crowd, blend in, be a fly on the wall so no one will notice you, he told himself.

From behind them Narcissa shoved them aside and rudely threw herself in the middle of the group. This gave Sirius the opportunity to actually see what was happening, instantly he recognized the older boy. Lucius Malfoy, his cousin's boyfriend and very respectable member of the pure blood community. He wasn't surprised he was beating on a younger student, Lucius was always a prick.

"Lucius!" Narcissa cried as he stood behind her boyfriend. "What are you doing? He's like a first year, are you really that dense?"

Lucius turned around showing her that he was sporting a bloody nose. "Little punk made me trip." He sneered bringing his hand up to his nose which was bleeding quite profusely.

"Oh come on," she rolled her eyes. Sirius was not terribly fond of his cousin as she did have the typical pure blood air about her. But she was the lesser of two evils between her and Bellatrix. She had at least some sense of respect for anything other than herself. "Let's go, I'll fix it for you in the compartment, I think you've taught the brat a lesson by now. Besides, you don't need to be getting into trouble this early in the year for something so stupid."

Lucius snorted and gave the young boy a sneer before turning around and wrapping his arm around Narcissa's waist. "Right," he straightened his back and walked through the crowd which had separated for him. Lucius Malfoy had quite the reputation in the school, he was someone you would want to either avoid or stay on his good side. "Let's go, love, I do hope we're not sharing a compartment with that sister of yours and that thing she calls a boyfriend."

"Oh please," Narcissa said. "We're with Rabastan, you really think I'll put us with 'Dromeda and her mudblood lover?" She giggled as they passed by the boys and walked down the hall as though his were an ordinary occurrence.

When they were well out of earshot Sirius sighed. "That man is a prick."

"Obviously." James snorted.

"You know him?" Remus asked quietly.

"That's my cousin he's dating." Sirius said shaking his head in disgust and turning around to face James and Remus again. "We've met at a few family functions."

"That makes you –"

"A pure blood." Sirius nodded, "James too, we're second cousins I think… is that how it would work?"

"Not sure, distantly related anyway." James shrugged it off. "What about you, Remus?"

"Oh no," he shook his head.

They shrugged again and took one last look at the boy in the compartment. "He looks okay," Sirius concluded.

In fact the boy looked far from okay, his nose and lip was bloody. But there were several older students hovering around him healing him and making sure he was okay, so Remus decided to leave him and follow James and Sirius back to their compartment.

"Well that was exciting," Sirius snorted as they walked back, when they returned they found the two girls were still standing in their doorway.

"What was that about?" The dirty blond asked.

"Fight," Sirius replied. "It's done now."

"Oh," she said and disappeared back in her compartment; the brunette was left behind and gave them a friendly smile.

"Hi, are you first years too?" The brunette asked.

"Yeah," James nodded. "I'm James, this is Sirius and Remus."

She smiled broadly at them; her smile was large and her gums showed just as much as her teeth did. "I'm Laura, that's Andy in there. Nice to meet you, hope to see you around." She concluded disappearing in the compartment and closing the door.

"Good to know the neighbors." Sirius said as they slipped back into their compartment. "So, Jimmy, what did your mum leave you with?"

"Oh yeah," James said, he had completely forgotten that his mother had given him a care package. "I really hope its good stuff and not just helpful stuff."

"What's the difference?" Remus asked as he watched James fight with the strings around the package.

"Not enough sugar is helpful stuff, but enough sugar to put us in a diabetic coma is good stuff." James smirked up at him before looking back down and ripping the strings apart. "Alright, let's see what we've got here."

He opened the lid to reveal a note from his mother, he glanced at it before putting it aside, it help words of encouragement. It said that she loved him and his father loved him and whatever house he got into they would be proud and blah blah blah, he really could not be bothered with such things now.

When he moved the note aside he was pleased to find himself face to face with home cooked pastries and several store bought bags of his favorite treats. "Oh how I love my mother," James smiled picking up a cookie and biting into it, it was still warm, his mother must have put a charm on them. "You guys want any?" He offered the box to them.

"Do you even have to ask?" Sirius said grabbing a cookie and a chocolate frog.

Remus paused and looked at the box. "Okay," he said after swallowing the lump in his throat. He reached in and picked up a cookie.

"Mum makes the best cookies," James said shoving the rest in his mouth before grabbing another. "Take as many as you like, she must have packed two dozen in here."

Remus took a bite of the cookie, it certainly was good, there were a few more chocolate frogs in the box. He swallowed the bite and took another still eyeing the enchanted frog. "Do you think I could have a chocolate frog?" He asked timidly.

"Of course, mate!" James said tossing him one.

Remus caught it and gave a smile. "I love chocolate." He told them. "Do you, uh, do you collect the cards?"

"Who doesn't?" Sirius asked getting up and going through his bag for a second before pulling out a small box, inside he pulled out a stack of cards. "I've got the best," he said and proceeded to show off his impressive collection.

Remus smiled, he was actually having a normal conversation with two boys his age about chocolate frog cards. This was far more than he expected this soon into the year, and he had to admit, he liked it.


	3. Hogwarts School

**AN: Chapter two, ladies and gents. I wish I could update faster but to be honest we're probably looking at a chapter every week or two. But I will try and keep up that schedule! Also, I do not have a beta, so any mistakes are mine. I read it through, but as we all know that can only do so much.**

* * *

They didn't anticipate the train ride would be quite this long, it was already dark out. The three boys had eaten their way through most of the goodies in the care package Mrs. Potter made for her son. The three boys were getting to know one another well; Sirius rather liked this Remus kid. He was a bit shy but that was okay, he didn't need a high energy ball of excitement, he already had James who was enough outgoing for him.

If only his parents could see him consorting with them. James who despite his pure blood status didn't care about purity one bit, and Remus who was a half blood and seemed to be less well off money wise than James and himself. Goodness, could it get much worse?

"Look!" James said pinning himself against the window and peering out. In the distance they could see the outline of the Hogwarts castle, they could hardly see it but there was enough moonlight to illuminate the top of the castle enough.

"That's it?" Remus asked, stealing a glance at the moon which was shinning bright in the sky, there was no cloud cover.

"That's it, mate." Sirius said barely able to contain his excitement.

There was a knock at their compartment door and it slid open to reveal a tall older boy with brown hair, dressed in his Hogwarts robes, they were colored with blue symbolizing he was in Ravenclaw House. His breast had a badge marked "HB".

"Good evening, lads." He said with a Scottish brogue. "I'm Daniel Thomas; I'm your head boy for this year. I'm here to let you know that you should get in your robes now, we'll be arriving at the castle in about ten minutes." He flashed them a friendly smile. "If you need anything don't hesitate to ask, it's my duty to look after you this year."

"Right, thanks." James said casting him a smile.

Daniel nodded and moved along to the next compartment.

"Better get dressed," Sirius said rifling through his trunk to find his robes, they were wrinkled and unfolded all the way at the bottom, James' was slightly better, though Sirius had a feeling his mom packed his bag for him. Remus on the other hand had the least trouble finding his. He only had to open his trunk the smallest bit before pulling out neatly folded robes. He knew exactly where they were without looking so he must have packed it himself.

After a few minutes of shuffling around the three boys were dressed in their black robes and ready with their trunks all packed up. They might has well of been standing at the doorway of the train ready to jump off the second it stopped, they were so excited. But after what seemed liked ages the train came to a slow stop and the boys nearly fell out of the compartment to get to the front of the train first. However to their dismay everyone was crowding out and it was still several more minutes before they stepped out in to the cold September night air.

"Beautiful night," James commented staring up at the beautifully lit castle. "Couldn't be better."

"Yeah," Sirius said coming to stand next to him.

Remus, the shortest of the three came to stand beside them and looked at the castle as well, he couldn't believe he was here. He really had no hopes of attending school, that was until Dumbledore showed up at his front door personally asking to speak with him and his parents.

Before his thoughts carried him away too much he drew his attention to a large… _very_ large man standing with a lantern beside the train.

"All firs' years!" He bellowed in a deep voice. "Firs' years come this way, please!"

"Wow," James said as the three approached the man.

The man continued to call out for the first years and soon he had a good collection of young students in front of him. "All righ', is that everyone then?" The man called out to them and lifted his lantern to see the rest of the students. No one seemed lost of confused. The older students were all walking along a path and pilling into some nearby carriages, drawn by nothing the boys noticed.

"Righ' then, come on first years, this way, please, follow me!" He called out and lead them away from the train and down a separate path.

"Are we walking there?" James asked Sirius in a quiet voice. "Seems far."

"Not walkin', young Sir," The large man replied, apparently he had heard him. "We will be taking a separate means of transportation. Hope ye don't mind boats." He gave James a friendly grin.

"No, I'm not," James said. "I'm James… who are you?"

"Rubeus Hagrid," said the man still leading them down the path. "Keeper of the Keys an' Grounds 'ere at 'Ogwarts."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Mr. Hagrid."

"Jus' Hagrid is fine, James, jus' fine." Hagrid said giving him another smile as he stopped and turned back around. "Now everyone hop in a boat, no more than four or five per boat, please. Come on, now!"

The students got in boats, some of them choosing to remain with the friends they made on the train and others awkwardly getting into boats with people they didn't know. Remus, James and Sirius all got in a boat together along with another first year boy, he gave them a small flash of a smile before sitting and not looking at them for the remainder of the journey.

"No touchin' the water!" Hagrid called out to them as several students dunked their hands in. "No tellin' what could grab yeh." The students immediately withdrew their hands from the lake.

"Wonder what's in the water," Sirius mused as he looking down at it before turning his gaze back to the majestic castle before him.

"All sorts of things I'll bet," James replied. "Bet it's dangerous too, dad said there's a bunch of dangerous stuff living on the grounds."

"That can't be safe," Remus said quietly certainly not thinking that he was just one more dangerous thing to add to the list.

"If it was safe then it wouldn't be any fun, now would it?" Sirius turned to tell him. "Ha! This is gonna be great, James I hope we're sorted into the same house so we can share a room. I'd hate to have to sneak out of the Slytherin common room just to see you, gosh, they'd all hate me." He laughed.

"Why Slytherin?" Remus asked.

"Whole family is in Slytherin, even the occasional good Blacks get sorted there." He replied. "Like my cousin 'Dromeda, I love her, she's my favorite. But she's in Slytherin just the same as her sisters Cissy and Bella, and she is nothing like them. You met Cissy earlier."

Remus nodded; there was a lot about the wizarding world he didn't know despite having grown up with magical parents. They often did muggle activities due to his problem, it was just easier that way. Not that he was naïve to magic and magical things, he loved reading about the wizarding world, he just wasn't as experienced in it as most children who grew up with magic were.

Before they knew it they were getting out of their boats and walking up to the castle, the upperclassmen must have already of been there because the carriages were outside the castle. The front gates were huge and they walked through them up the long road that led to the large stone doors.

Hagrid opened it for them with a loud creak and behind the doors stood a woman, she was getting up in her years but still looked as tough as nails. Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun and her eyebrows were thin and neatly manicured. She stared down at them over her wire framed glasses, sizing up each and every one of them.

"Thank you, Hagrid," she said dismissing the large man, he gave her a warm smile.

"Thank ye, professor."

She nodded curtly. "Good evening, children," she said in a voice that commanded authority. "I am Professor Minerva McGonagall; I am the transfiguration professor here at Hogwarts and head of Gryffindor house. If you will follow me I will lead you to the great hall where you will first be sorted into your houses and then served dinner. Follow me."

"I wonder if her face is frozen that way, too many anti-wrinkle spells perhaps?" Sirius whispered to James and Remus.

The three boys suppressed giggles, Remus felt bad and instantly and stopped laughing. It wasn't polite to laugh at those in authority positions, especially when she must have known of his condition, he would have to stay on her good side. He was sure none of the professors agreed with Dumbledores decision to admit him, but couldn't do much about it due to the fact he was headmaster.

They turned a corner and walked through two large oak doors, what was on the other side amazed every single first year McGonagall had.

"Oh my God," Remus breathed. "Look at the ceiling."

"Yeah, mate, we see it." James said gazing up at the night sky that was above him, only it wasn't the night sky, he was inside. Though it looked like it was, the moon was high above their heads along with every visible star and constellation that was out this time of year. Candles floated ten or so feet above their heads, illuminating the whole room perfectly. It was absolutely wonderful.

"The moon looks so real." Remus said quietly as he stared at it, he nearly ran into Sirius he was so distracted by it. "I read about it in 'Hogwarts: A History' but it didn't think it would actually look like this…"

"Now please remain standing as you are all sorted into your houses." McGonagall said walking up a few steps to a stool which had a dusty old hat sitting on top of it.

No one said anything for a few moments until the hat which sat upon the stool opened its mouth, or what you could call a mouth. It was more like a long tear at the brim of the hat, but it spoke words they could all understand none the less.

All the first years jumped back as it spoke, or sang rather.

"I'll bet you've never seen a hat quite as clever as me,

For I place you in a house, it is in your heart I see

I see your brain and I see your soul,

I see your spirit and your bravery

Your courage and your strength

Your loyalty and your kindness

I see who you are, even if you do not

This all determines your house, you see

And only I know where you may be

Give me a reason where you belong.

Should you be a studious Ravenclaw

Taking in knowledge like a needed ray of sun

Or perhaps maybe a heartwarming Hufflepuff

You would certainly welcome all

Or maybe you are a cunning Slytherin

Learning how to use your information to its potential

But you could be a Gryffindor

Strong and brave to the very end.

No matter the house I put you in always remember this

You are who you choose to be

I nor anyone can make you who you are

So come and let me sit on your head

I promise you I will not bite!"

Every first year student stared in amazement at the hat while every other student watched with amused looks, it was always fun to see the their reaction to the talking hat.

McGonagall picked up a large scroll and began to read names off it.

"Here we go," Sirius said with a deep breath.

"Timothy Bones!" She called.

A boy with dark brown hair and eyes walked up to the hat, he was terribly skinny, you could see his cheekbones through his skin. When McGonagall placed the sorting hat on his head it fell down and hit his shoulders concealing his whole head.

"Ravenclaw!" The hat called out and Timothy hopped off the stool as fast as he could and ran over to the Ravenclaw table.

"Michelle Franton!"

This girl was short with black curly hair down to her shoulders. The hat barley settled on her head before it shouted.

"Slytherin!"

Several more names were called before one of theirs was, "James Potter!" She announced.

James took a breath and stepped up to the stool; he sat down slowly and jumped slightly when the sorting hat was placed on his head.

"Oh my…" The hat said as though it were reading something deep within him. "You have quite the future ahead of you, m'boy… GRYFFINDOR!" It shouted.

James broke out into a smile as he hopped off and ran over to the Gryffindor table where several older Gryffindors clapped him on the back and congratulated him. Two of which were twin boys with auburn hair.

"Laura Avalon!"

Sirius looked up, it was that nice brunette girl in the neighboring compartment.

The hat was on her head for several moments before it shouted. "Hufflepuff!"

"Remus Lupin!"

Remus looked up, this was it, now let's see where he belonged. He walked up and sat down; instead of him jumping the hat seemed to jump instead. "Well look what we have here," the hat mumbled. "A werewolf at Hogwarts, you are the first kind to be here you know… this is certainly an interesting turn of events. GRYFFINDOR!"

Remus sighed and got up, he walked over to James and sat down.

"Good job, Remus." James said. "Let's just hope we have Sirius too."

Another name, and another, and another, Sirius thought it would be forever until he was called. The group of first years was beginning to dwindle down into nothing, only a handful of them remained.

"Lily Evans!"

A girl with red hair and brilliant green eyes left the black haired boy she had been with and walked up to the stool very timidly. It took her a moment before she sat, but when she did it seemed the hat spoke with her as well before shouting out, "Gryffindor!"

"Andrena Volk!"

The dirty blond walked up and sat on the stool, she stared at the hat at it touched her head for only a moment before shouting, "Gryffindor!"

She cast a look at her friend Laura at the Hufflepuff table before walking over to her own and sat down at an empty seat. The auburn twins high fived her for getting into their house and must have said something funny because she laughed.

"Mareena Milton!"

The pudgy girl walked up to the hat and sat down, it wasn't long before she was sorted into Hufflepuff.

Another Ravenclaw boy, another Slytherin boy, a Ravenclaw girl…

"Sirius Black!"

"Finally!" Sirius said as he trotted up to the sorting hat.

The hat was placed on his head. "Look at you, a Black… one of the purest of the pure, eh? I'll bet everyone wants you in Slytherin, but I'll tell you, Slytherin is not where your true calling is… GRYFFINDOR!"

"Yes!" Sirius shouted as he stood and shot his fist in the air. He glanced at the Slytherin table where he clearly saw Narcissa and Lucius, Cissy was shaking her head and looking very disappointed. Andromeda across the table from her, on the other hand, was grinning at him. He shot her a grin in reply and wondered how she managed to find her way into Slytherin house.

"Severus Snape!"

This was the boy that red haired girl Lily was with, he glanced at her and gave a friendly smile before sitting down. The hat fell on his head, he propped it up a little with his hands before it called out. "Slytherin!"

His face fell, but he got up and walked over to the Slytherin table anyway. He sat next to Lucius and Cissy who congratulated him.

Another girl and boy, another and another student until all that was left was a pudgy short boy they saw Lucius beating up on the train. His face seemed to have been healed nicely, probably thanks to an elder student who was well taught in healing charms.

"Peter Pettigrew!"

Peter walked up and sat down on the stool.

"Hufflepuff or sure," Sirius guessed to James.

After a few moments, "Gryffindor!"

"What?" Sirius asked bewildered.

"Don't judge a book by its cover, Sirius." James laughed and applauded with the rest of the Gryffindors.

McGonagall put the scroll back down and walked around the large table behind her where the staff of Hogwarts sat. There an old man with a long white beard that was tucked into his belt stood up and addressed the entire crowd. Though he did not seem to be speaking louder than any normal person would his elderly but spirited voice traveled throughout the room so everyone could clearly hear him.

"Welcome, welcome my students to another year at Hogwarts!" There was a cheer from most of the students. "For our new first years in the crowd my name is Professor Dumbledore, I have far too many names for me to ask you to remember them all," he grinned with a distinct twinkle in his eye. "There are several things I must inform you about, firstly I have been informed once again by our caretaker Mr. Filch that the Forbidden Forest is off limits to students, anyone caught there will be under the mercy of Mr. Filch."

"The Forbidden Forest?" James asked excitedly as Dumbledore continued, "Sounds fun, being forbidden and all."

"Aye, I reckon it might be," Sirius said with equal excitement. "I dare say we should take a trip or two over there and see exactly why it's so forbidden. Hey, Remus, care to join us? After all, we all fellow Gryffindors now."

Remus bit his lower lip, they were fellow Gryffindors. He would be sharing a dorm with these boys and he would want them to like him. "Sure," he said before really thinking about it too much, if he thought about it he would only come up with reasons why he shouldn't.

"Wonderful!" Sirius seemed happy about it. "We'll gather some information first though; a smart sneak asks questions first. If we just dive right on in who knows what we could find."

"But isn't that half the fun?" James asked.

"You are right, James, you are absolutely right!"

Remus could feel himself sweating, what sort of friends was he making? He was supposed to stay on the down low.

Then, Dumbledore said the magical words they were all waiting to hear. "Let the feast begin!"

At that moment mountains of food appeared on their tables, the boys had never seen so much food in their lives and instantly dig right in grabbing the delicious meats and juicy fruits by the handful.

"Pace yourselves, lads." One of the auburn twins said. "There's still dessert."

"This is great!" Sirius exclaimed. "I'm Sirius, by the way."

"Nice to meet you," the boy said. "I'm Gideon and this is my brother Fabian, we're fifth years."

"I'm James." They continued the introduction.

"Uh, I'm Remus."

"Nice to meet all of you," Fabian said. "If you need any help just ask, we're always willing to help out when there's trouble involved."

"Trouble?" James asked.

"Forbidden Forest? In your first year? Brave lads indeed, you truly are Gryffindors." Gideon said.

"Hello!" Said a disembodied head as it popped up through the table.

James dropped his fork and let out a slightly more girly shriek then he would have liked.

"Haha," Sirius barked out a laugh at him. "It's a ghost, you idiot."

James picked his fork back up. "He startled me!"

"Good evening, Nick!" Gideon said with a wave.

"Good evening, gentlemen." Nick said and rose the rest of the way out of the table. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Sir Nicolas de Mimsy Porpington. I do hope you're a good lot, Ravenclaw won the house cup last year, we can't have that again! Goodness, I could have sworn I even saw the lovely Grey Lady smile during such an occasion. Rare moment indeed! So, do your best, so we can win! Gryffindor is famous for winning the cup!" He announced before floating off.

"Sir Nick is our house ghost," Fabian explained. "Great guy, also known as Nearly Headless Nick, but don't let him catch you calling him that."

"I think he has a thing for the Grey Lady, she's the Ravenclaw ghost." Gideon explained.

The boys smiled and exchanged looks, they had a feeling they had quite the seven years ahead of them together.


	4. First Night

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter... I know, its shocking right?

First Night

It wasn't long before the feast ended and the boys found themselves face to face with two fifth years, a boy and a girl, who would be directing them to their dorm rooms.

"Hello, Gryffindor first years!" The boy called out. "I am Frank Longbottom and I will be your house prefect for the year. This is Sally Willinton and she will be you're prefect as well." Frank looked almost bored giving this speech, almost like he didn't want to be there doing it. he gave a sideways glance to the tall girl beside him who also wore a prefect badge with her Gryffindor robes.

Sally smiled and rolled her eyes. "If you'll follow us we'll lead you to the Gryffindor Tower," she began as she proceeded to lead them out of the Great Hall and up the first set of stairs they came across. "Now I order to get in the tower you'll need the password, of course I can't utter it here in case someone else over hears, we don't need other houses sneaking into our common room."

Frank snorted and Sally smirked at him.

"Can you believe this place?" James muttered as he stared at the dozens of paintings on the walls. "There's so many of them. I wonder who they all are."

"Past professors and people who contributed to Hogwarts somehow, no doubt," Remus replied grinning as a clumsy knight stumbled through a painting of older women who looked absolutely mortified. "Merlin's beard!" He exclaimed as the staircase they were on began to shift, several first years gave small shrieks, particularly the muggle borns among them.

"I knew this happened," Sirius said with a wild grin. "But it's way cooler than 'Dromeda made it sound."

"This happens a lot," they heard Sally explain. "Eventually you'll learn how to work around this, but unfortunately it can be rather cumbersome the first couple weeks when you don't know your way around."

"And don't trip off the end of the stair case while its moving." Frank added. "It's happened before," he continued when he received horrified looks from students.

Sirius scoffed as they began ascending another staircase, and then another. "Geez," he sighed. "How far up is this thing?" He asked looking over the side of the staircase, they could look down and see several levels of staircases moving around beneath them.

"Sally said we were going to Gryffindor Tower," Remus replied. "If it's a tower I imagine it would be pretty high up."

They walked down a corridor before walking up yet another staircase which too moved as they moved along. But this time they did not stop, it was like the two prefects had perfect knowledge of were it would end up.

"Only one more to go!" Alice announced as they traveled up the last staircase, by this point in their journey the first years were lost as to where they were in the castle. "Gryffindor Tower is on the seventh floor, a bit of a walk to get to from most places, but it has the best view of the grounds! It even beats out Ravenclaw Tower I think."

"How do you know the Ravenclaw Tower view?" Frank asked.

"Oh," Sally looked thoughtful. "No reason."

"No reason? You shagging someone in Ravenclaw?" Frank asked his voice low, after this comment it became hard to hear the two in their hushed tones.

Sirius turned to James and Remus. "'Dromeda says the Slytherin common room is located under water. Not that I wanted to be in that house, but it seems pretty cool. Their windows are windows into the lake, its green tinted because of the water, at least that's what she says."

"Sounds dark." James commented.

"Knowing the primarily pure blood slime that occupies that house you bet its dark. You should see my house; it's pretty much a museum of dark objects."

Finally they reached the seventh floor and stopped in front of a painting of a heavy woman dressed in a pink dress. The trio looked to one another in confusion. "What's supposed to happen now?" James murmured.

The woman in the painting shifted. "Password?" She asked.

"Nogtail." Frank said as everyone gasped as the woman gave them a polite nod and the painting swung open to reveal a stone passageway.

"Way cool," Sirius grinned as they stepped through the threshold and into a large stone room.

"Welcome to the Gryffindor Common Room!" Frank said spreading his arms out.

"Oh… wow," Remus gasped taking in the high arch stone ceiling and large plush furniture around a mahogany coffee table, hand carved with lion heads in the corners. But what was really impressive was the fire place, they could stand in it, it was so large. On the wall there was a notice board where they saw older students posting papers up already for various clubs and teams.

"This is incredible." Sirius laughed, there were torches on the walls to light the room, and one large hanging chandelier. The stone walls were covered in scarlet tapestries which glowed in response to the firelight around them.

"Ladies," Sally said separating from Frank. "Follow me, this way to the girls dormitories. Gentlemen, if you would follow Frank to the boy's dorms we'll show you to your rooms."

The boys and girls obediently separated, this only left James, Sirius, Remus and that small boy Peter following Frank.

"So," Frank said turning around to face them as they walked up the stone staircase. "You enjoying Hogwarts so far? I mean, I know you've only been here for like five minutes, but how you liking it?"

"It's incredible," James said. "I can't wait to start classes."

Frank snorted. "Yeah, that's what you say now. Wait till you're in your fifth year."

They walked out onto a small balcony of the common room before turning a corner into another hallway. This one had three doors before there was another staircase leading further up the tower.

"This one is your room." Frank said opening the first door they came across. "Second years are across the hall." He pointed to the second door. "Third and fourth years up the stairs, fifth and sixth up another flight, seventh are at the top of the tower."

"There's your bathroom, over there, across the room. Am I alright to leave you boys alone?" Frank asked. "I think you can all handle it from here, breakfast is at eight, you'll get your class schedules then. No lights out in the dorms, but you're not to be wandering the halls of the castle after nine unless you have business to attend you. Like a late detention or a class." He added. "Good night."

The four boys chorused a 'good night' before Frank shut the door behind him and when he did Sirius let out a high pitched squeal of excitement. "Oh this is great! We have our own room, we got our own bathroom, I'm sharing a dorm with three awesome mates. Actually I don't know you Pete but I'm sure you're great!" He said with much enthusiasm.

Peter gave a shy smile and put his trunk down at the foot of one of the beds. "I call this one." He said simply.

"Of course!" James exclaimed. "I claim this one," he said running over and jumping on one of the four poster beds. This bed is better than my bed at home!"

Sirius picked the one beside James and Remus was left with the last bed, the one next to the window. Not that it bothered him, he did have a curtain around his bed after all so if he wanted he could easily pull the curtains shut. He just wished he could have gotten one further away from the direct moonlight. But oh well, it really didn't bother him too much. He did however walk over and pull the curtains shut on the window so he could no longer see the moon shining in the night sky.

"Don't like the view, mate?" James asked still bouncing on the bed.

"It just sort of creeps me out," Remus said slightly flustered. "Too many muggle horror flicks I guess. Anyway, I'm Remus Lupin, it's good to meet you." He said walking over to Peter and shaking his timid hand. "I don't believe we've been properly introduced. That's James Potter and Sirius Black over there."

Peter gave them a small wave. "Hi," he said.

"We saw you on the train," Sirius said. "Lucius was beating you up, yeah? Sorry, he can be a prick. Well, actually, he's always a prick."

"You know that guy?" Peter asked sitting down on his bed.

Sirius nodded. "Dating my cousin he is, not a nice fella, but we shouldn't be running into him too often, he's a sixth year. In a couple years he'll be gone anyway and we can make fun of the underclassmen." He smiled.

Peter smirked at that. "I'd like to be the one pulling the jokes for once."

James grinned. "Than you're lucky you found us, Sirius and I are rather famous around my household for our practical jokes."

"My mother has screamed her head off at me for pranking her and father. So funny…" Sirius mused.

"Funny?" Peter asked.

"Mother and Father are bigoted pure bloods, can't stand some of the things they say, if I pull a harsh joke on them I assure you they disserve it."

"But now," James said. "We can turn it up a notch, start pranking on a large scale. We're at Hogwarts now, mate, just think of all the people who have yet to have dungbombs in their underpants."

"Their underpants?" Remus asked. "How did you manage that?"

"My little brother Regulus," Sirius began. "He's a snot nosed brat. He deserved every bit of that torture. It's really not hard, shrinking charm is all we needed."

Remus couldn't stop a small smile. "You got in trouble?"

"Oh yeah," Sirius nodded. "Grounded for a month and got in trouble for underage magic since mum and dad weren't home when I did it, the Ministry knew it was me. I had to do all the chores for a month. It's okay though, I got the house elf to do them."

"You are one of the wealthiest pure blood families in existence and you had chores?" Remus asked.

"Yes, I had chores." Sirius sighed. "My brother doesn't have chores and my mother lays about all day barking orders and taking about filthy mudbloods and half breeds-"

Remus flinched.

"Father does whatever it is he does all day and I'm left doing the chores the house elf should do anyway. That's why we have a house elf, isn't it?" Sirius ended his rant. "But anyway, you're right James, this is the perfect opportunity to work on those inventions we were working on anyway."

"Inventions?" Remus asked.

"Last time the two of us met," James explained. "We were conjuring a slime spell to go off whenever someone opened a door. But we've been having trouble actually doing it, the slime's too thick and it takes several minutes to drop down, so the person notices it before it hits them. Then we get a more watery one and it doesn't stick nearly as well as we would have liked. It's more or less just green water."

"Which is still good, I mean green water does freak people out, but slime should be slimy." Sirius added.

Remus thought for a moment and smiled. "I may be able to help you two out with that. I'm quite good with the technical aspect of spells, or at least my mother thinks so." He blushed a little, perhaps mentioning his mother to his new friends wasn't a good idea, he wanted them to think he was friend material, not a mama's boy.

"Great! If your mothers right you might be able to give us a hand." James said and bent over the edge of his bed to open his trunk. "I have the parchment in here somewhere with the formulas we were working on."

While he shuffled through his trunk Sirius took the opportunity to go into his and change into his pajamas. Upon seeing this Remus changed into his as well, they differed greatly from Sirius's which were green and silk. Sirius commented he really should get more Gryffindor house appropriate ones but his mother bought him these so of course they were green.

Remus's pajamas on the other hand just consisted of an old shirt with holes and tattered edges and a pair of over sized flannel pants with holes in the knees. It wasn't that his mom hadn't offered to buy him a new pair of pajamas, he just always declined. These worked and they needed the money for other things, like his school books and robes which proved to be rather expensive. They weren't even able to get him an animal; though he didn't say anything about it he really wanted an owl.

Remus kneeled on his bed as he watched Peter open up a small box with holes in it he had attached to his trunk.

"What's that you got there?" Sirius asked, James still ruffling through the trunk murmuring to himself.

"This is my toad," Peter said taking out the small animal. "His name is Rotters."

"Rotters?" Sirius grimaced. "That's a weird name."

"He smells sometimes." Peter explained. "Like rotten things so I thought it was fitting."

Sirius smirked. "You're right, it is fitting." He said getting a wiff of the warty animal. " Mother said she would buy me an owl of my own only if my grades were up to her standards, but seeing as I got into Gryffindor I don't think any grades would meet her standards now." He laughed humorlessly.

"Same with my mum, she said I could get an owl for Christmas if I kept my grades up enough." James said as he pulled out a couple crinkles sheets of parchment with splattered ink stains on them and a green substance Remus couldn't place.

"This is the formula you have so far?" Remus asked taking the parchment and examining it.

"That's it," James said.

Remus looked it over seeming fairly impressed by what he saw. "It's okay, but I already see a few miscalculations with your spell right here."

James looked over his shoulder. "Yeah?"

"Yeah, see right here? You mistranslated this word here."

James gave Sirius a small grin. "Siri, I think we found our intellect. After all, a group of pranksters can't be anything without the man behind the pranks. You're the genius we need, Remus."

Remus flushed. "I'm not a genius." He said quietly.

"Smart enough, you've had this thing for three seconds and already you're noticing mistranslated words. I should show you all our failed projects and ask your opinion."

By now Sirius was looking over Remus's shoulder as well. "Huh, look at that." He mused. "Hey, Pete, you a brain?"

"No." Peter said hugging his toad.

"Hm, well, we'd need a decoy anyway." Sirius winked. "Come on over here, mate." He waved him over and Pete jumped happily off his bed and over to Remus' where they were all examining the parchment.

Remus smiled to himself as he explained the proper translation and pronunciation of the words. Friends, he was getting friends. Sure he was helping them perfect a prank that if they got pulling they would probably all get detention but that didn't matter, really. He could handle a couple detentions if it meant he wasn't going to be all alone. Who knows though, maybe they wouldn't even get caught and they would be able to slip through unnoticed. After all, how many jokes could they really pull before they got tired of pushing their luck?


	5. Potions and Defense

**AN:** An error has been detected by a reviewer and fixed, chapters 2 and 3 accidentally got switched in the posting process. I'm now numbering them all as I go so this won't happen again. But it's been corrected and now all is well.

Disclaimer: Do not own Harry Potter... I only own a lot of merchandise.

**Potions and Defense**

The four boys stayed up until late in the night going over the formulas, nothing was finished since practicing their new spells and potions in the dorm room probably wasn't the best idea, but they certainly got some good leads. It wasn't until about two in the morning when they finally went to bed, so when they had to get up at 7:30 they were rather exhausted and only three successfully rose from bed when they got a knock on their door from Frank asking if they were up.

"Come on, Sirius," James said ripping the scarlet plush comforter off his best friend. "Time to rise and shine, mate."

Sirius groaned and curled in on himself.

"Sirius!" James shouted. "It's the first day of school and already we're going to be late for breakfast."

"We shouldn't be," Remus said fiddling with his Gryffindor colored tie. "It's the first day; we're getting our schedules today. It would be nice to actually look at them before running off to class."

Sirius rolled over. "I have time," he grunted.

"You have twenty five minutes before breakfast," James pointed out. "I doubt you'll shower, but we still have to find breakfast. I don't know about you guys but I don't remember the way to the great hall."

"I am lost in this place, I was hoping you three remembered." Peter said as he unbuttoned his whole shirt due to miss buttoning it.

Sirius grunted again. "Follow the crowd."

James threw his hands in the air and walked over to the window where he threw open the drapes to let the morning sun in. "Rise and shine, beautiful!" He shouted.

Sirius sat up in his bed and squinted against the sun. "Why?" He asked simply.

"Get up," James moaned and bounced over to his bed and hopped on it. "Come on, we're gonna be late for breakfast and I know you don't want that."

Sirius sighed and thought for a moment. "I do like breakfast and if the food is half as good as it was last night… I will go." He decided before falling back on the bed. "After five more minutes."

James rolled his eyes and Remus suppressed a laugh with Peter.

It was fifteen minutes later and ten minutes until breakfast when the boys finally made their way out of their dorm. Lucky for them there were still some upperclassmen leaving the common room for breakfast so they chose to follow them to get back to the great hall. They still couldn't memorize their way through these halls just yet, Frank was right, this was going to take a couple weeks of practice.

It took the full ten minutes to travel down the stairs and to the hall, when they arrived the food was already on the tables and students were already chowing down. However, no one had scrolls of parchment so they could assume that no one had received their schedules yet.

"Looks like we're just in time," Remus said as each head of house stood up and began passing out scrolls of parchment to each student in their house.

"Hey!"

The four boys turned their heads to see the Prewett twins waving them over. Across from them was the only space big enough for four people to sit comfortably.

"Morning," Gideon said cheerfully. "You boys are getting a bit of a late start, don't you think?"

"Yeah, aren't we, Sirius?" James asked looking over to Sirius. "Wonder why that is."

Sirius yawned in reply.

"Had a late night?" Gideon asked.

"Later than would have been best," Remus responded.

Fabian grinned at them. "Hope you're not too tired for classes, first day is usually pretty easy but soon it's gonna get intense. Get all the sleep you can while you still can."

McGonagall came beside them and wordlessly passed them all their schedules, they vaguely wondered how she already knew who they all were. Then again, they supposed only eight new faces in her house this year. It wasn't that hard to remember.

The boys opened up their parchments and stared at them for a moment before comprehending what they were saying. Potions was first on the list with Professor Slughorn, then they had Defense Against the Dark Arts with Professor Harten, Herboloogy with Professor Sprout, and Transfiguration with none other than their head of house Professor McGonagall. They also had History of Magic with Professor Binns, Charms with Professor Flitwick, and finally they had Astronomy with Professor Gavebunk. There was a note on the bottomg of the paper stating that they had flying lessons with Madam Hooch once a week.

"Doesn't seem too bad," Remus commented.

"Maybe for geniuses." James quipped jokingly shooting him a smile.

Remus gave a shy smile and proceeded to load his plate with his breakfast.

"So, give us a run down of the professors," Sirius said grabbing as much bacon as he could hold. "Who should be watch out for?"

"McGonagall is the best out of that group," Fabian began taking his schedule from him and looking it over.

"Slughorn is the worst." Gideon finished.

"You only say that because you're god awful in potions." Frank said as he took a seat next to them.

"Where have you been, mate?" Gideon said slapping him on the back. "Visiting that Ravenclaw girl of yours no doubt?"

Frank nodded. "She's mad again; apparently we didn't hang out during the summer as much as she would have liked us to. What the hell does she want from me? See this is why we don't hang out because every time we do I have to listen to her run her mouth about how we don't see one another often enough. Girls, I swear I hate them all."

Gideon snorted. "Break up with her, more than one girl at this school fancies you."

Frank shook his head and took some breakfast signaling the end of the conversation. "Professors?" He asked looking to the younger boys.

"Yeah," Peter said.

"Well, McGonagall is the best teacher you have in that line up," he told them. "She sood, she really seems to care, despite her rather cold demeanor."

"She seems pretty icy." Sirius commented stealing a glance up at the staff table.

"She is," Frank said. "But get to know her, once you're in with her she's a wonderful ally, especially if you mention Quidditch."

"So, Slughorn," James started. "What's so bad about him."

Fabian sighed and looked at his twin and then back at James. "He's not as bad as this one claims, he just plays favorites. Good at sports, academics, clever, whatever you are he'll find you and invite you to join his Slug Club."

"Lucius is in that," Sirius said. "I've heard Cissy rave about how wonderful it is that he's a part of something so great." He rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, Lucius Malfoy," Frank rolled his eyes. "One of Slughorns favorites because of his pure blood and his ease in subjects like Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Though if you as me Lucius is only good in Defense because of his knowledge in the dark arts." Gideon elbowed him.

"You shouldn't say stuff like that out loud," he scolded him. "You could get a guy in serious trouble."

Sirius laughed. "Please, everyone knows the Malfoy family and the Black family," he added. "Are pretty fluent in the dark arts."

"That may be so, but you've heard about the disappearances that have been happening in the past year, dark arts were all involved, they've even confirmed one officially dead now. The Killing Curse." Gideon said in a low voice. "I'm not saying anything is happening or… anything, I'm just saying, two deaths both by dark magic in the last year. Makes you wonder what's going on."

There was an awkward silence around the group for a few moments, of course they had heard of the disappearances. Who hadn't? They were front page news on the prophet, seemingly harmless people disappearing and one recently being confirmed dead via the Killing Curse. It did raise some questions.

Fabian cleared his throat loudly. "So, Potions first, good luck boys. You two are pure blood, right?"

James and Sirius nodded.

"He's sure to like you then, head of Slytherin House he is. Not that he's that much of a prick, he doesn't discriminate against separate houses or blood for that matter. He just expects more of a pure blood and is, shall we say, surprised when someone of _lesser_" he rolled his eyes, "blood status proves themselves."

Remus looked down at his plate and bit the inside of his cheeks. Lesser blood, where would a werewolf stand in that rating? Surly lesser than that of a half blood, or even a muggle born, at lease they could control themselves every day of the month.

There was some more discussion about their classes and professors for some time, some owls flew in and dropped packages and letters. Being the first day not many students got anything, and if they did it was something they forgot at home and their parents were now mailing it to them. Breakfast went by fairly fast until a bell rang all around them signaling that the first class of the day was about to begin. The food disappeared from the tables, some of it right out of students hands even, and grudgingly everyone stood from their seats and made their way to their first class of the day.

"Here we go," Gideon said pushing himself up and grabbing his books. "Good luck, boys."

"We'll see you at lunch," Fabian finished and along with Frank the three of them walked off to their classes.

The four of them looked at their schedules and sighed. "Dungeons?" James asked as he looked at the others. "Our class is located in the dungeons?"

Sirius smirked. "Well, the professor of it _is_ head of Slytherin house. I guess it makes sense."

"Well then let's move along," Remus ushered them. "We don't want to be late on our first day."

With an amused grin from James and Sirius they began making their way to their class, asking for directions only once in their travels from a fourth year Gryffindor who was thankfully very helpful.

The dungeons certainly lived up to their name, it got increasingly cold as they descended the stair cases and they could see water leaking down the walls as well as moss growing.

"According to Hogwarts: A History," Remus began as they walked down the hall with several other first years who were hopefully heading to the same destination. "Part of the dungeons is located under the lake."

"That's a cheery thought, what if the wall broke?" James asked.

"I'm sure there are spells to prevent that."

They heard Peter let out a short breath of relief at that.

The four of them stepped into a classroom they had followed two Slytherin girls into and to their relief this was Potions class. The boys sat down at four empty seats around the middle of the room, in front and to the left of them were the four Gryffindor girls. They recognized one of them as the girl they met on the train, the others though they did not remember the names of.

The girl, Andy, was sitting with a red headed girl, another with shorter light brown hair and a fourth with bushy dark brown hair and energetic blue eyes which they noticed when she turned for a second. Andy saw them and turned around momentarily to see them, she gave them a short lived smile and then turned back around to continue talking with her friends.

"She seems nice," Sirius mumbled under his breath.

"We haven't even met her properly yet, none of the others either," Remus defended. "Do you even remember their names?"

James shrugged. "I don't remember, we'll figure it out eventually I'm sure."

Just then the door opened and a round short man walked through, he seemed to be roughly middle aged and had a smile upon his face as he looked around the classroom. The boys noticed how he smiled at certain students, one of them being the bushy haired Gryffindor girl.

"Hello, hello, everyone." He said cheerfully. "I am Professor Horace Slughorn, it is certainly a pleasure to meet all of you."

There were some murmured from the students, particularly the Slytherins. He was their head of house, after all, it would do them well to be polite to him.

"I must say, it is wonderful to have such fresh minds in the school once more." He said turning around to face the students once he was at the head of the class. "I have high hopes for all of you," his eyes scanned the room and fell on Remus for a moment. "Perhaps some of you will impress me more than others, but I expect only the best from you all the same."

Remus swallowed, every staff member must know his secret, he concluded.

"In this class you will learn basic potion making and preparing and as you go on through your years you will learn the finer points of potions and their remedies, because I assure you, you will need remedies." He laughed.

Sirius and James exchanged tired looks as Slughorn began rambling on about different potions that you would need an antidote for, dangerous ones, silly ones… it wasn't until they were about an hour into the class he began asking them about what they knew about potions. Then not long after that the bell rang and they were off once again to another class. Slughorn bid them a good day and assigned them chapter one of their potions book for homework.

"We have homework already." Sirius complained as he dragged his feet out of the class.

"I already read it," Remus said quietly.

"Well," Sirius huffed. "Look at you, Mr. Smarty-Pants, no homework for you, then, aren't you lucky?"

Defense Against the Dark Arts was their next class, this class proved to be a challenge to find as well, they don't know how everyone else managed to get there so fast. They entered just as the bell rang to find they were the last ones to enter. Their professor was standing by the door seemingly waiting for them.

"Cutting it a little close, aren't we boys?" He said tilting his head down to them. "Be a little more careful next time, I would hate to have to give you a detention."

They nodded and found some stray seats in the back of the class.

Giving them one last glance their defense professor turned and started walking towards the front of the class. "Good morning, my name is Professor Harten, and hopefully you are all aware that this is your Defense Against the Dark Arts class."

When he turned around he gave them a knowing grin. "I believe we're all going to have loads of fun together." He was an older man who clearly had experience teaching, though as they soon learned it was not at this school. "As some of you may know this is my first year teaching here at Hogwarts, though you're all first years so you don't know the difference anyway do you?" He chortled quietly to himself. "Hopefully this will be the first year of may more despite the reputation this class has for not keeping a professor."

The class went smoothly, the boys quickly learned that Remus seemed to be a natural at the subject. He had his hand up on almost every question and if he didn't Sirius did. Remus took notes like a mad man, he had two pages of parchment filled out by the time the class ended and they really didn't discuss much that was note worthy since it was the first day.

When they left Professor Harten smiled at each of them and did not give them any homework, they were thankful for that. Though Remus was already through reading half the book, he claimed that his potions book and his defense book were the only ones he had read but the boys suspected he had been reading Transfiguration as well.

The rest of the day went along fairly quickly, they had Herbology next, then lunch in the Great Hall where they were able to meet up with the others and talk about their day so far. Then Transfiguration, Charms, History of Magic (where they were taught by a very boring ghost, none of them were expecting that), then Astronomy where they learned every Wednesday they were to meet at the top of the astronomy tower at midnight for lessons. They all groaned at that, but it meant they had a free period that day to do whatever so they were rather happy about that.


	6. A Proper Introduction

**AN: **I'm not terribly fond with how this story is progressing, I'll keep it up but I think its because first year means introducing things and working with 11 year olds. Being 22 I don't really remember what being 11 was like so I'm having trouble. I think once I work bullying, romance, drama, and malicious behavior into the mix it'll go along a little smoother.

I do not own Harry Potter, I know, shocking.

A Proper Introduction

Life was going pretty smoothly their first week at Hogwarts for the four boys; they were getting closer to one another and making new friends both from within their house and outside of it. Though they began to realize that they hardly even knew the girls in their year. Knew their faces, sure. Names? Yeah. But personality? Who were they?

So one weekend evening when the boys entered the tower from a rather exhausting few hours in the library trying to finish a transfiguration essay they saw the four girls sitting on the couch in front of the roaring fire. There were several other students in the common room as well, but not many, and those who were there were talking quietly in a group or working on a paper for a class.

Sirius determinedly walked up to the girls and gave them all a goofy smile, a smile that in only a couple years would become a smile that could melt the heart of any teenage girl.

"I'm Sirius, Sirius Black and this here is James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew."

The girls looked up and blinked for a moment, surprised at the sudden introduction by this boy they had only ever seen. After exchanging a small look between them they seemed to accept how this was going to happen and replied.

"Kathleen Rizen," the bushy haired brunette said first. "You can call me Kat."

"Michelle Franklin," the light brown haired girl said. "Nice to meet you," she flashed them a he smile that forced her to squint her eyes.

Next was the red head who had been talking to Andy for a moment. "Lily Evans," she said pleasantly. "It's a pleasure."

"Andrena Volk," Andy said. "Call me Andy."

"Well," Sirius said. "It's great to meet all of you, you girls having fun so far?"

"Oh yes," Lily said excitedly. "I'm so overwhelmed with all of this; I wish Petunia could see me now she would be so jealous! She's my older sister." She explained with a giggly smile.

"Lily here is a muggle-born," Kat informed with a knowing smile.

"Ah," Sirius said sitting down with a level of suave an eleven year old shouldn't possess. "So you're new to all this then, huh? I bet your letter was exciting."

"Well actually," Lily began. "Mum and dad didn't believe it at first, took three letters for them to believe something weird was happening regardless of what I told them. Then Professor Dumbledore came to the house to explain what was happening in detail. They didn't know what to make of it all at first. I mean, how could all this actually be real? It's incredible, magic is amazing, I still can't believe I'm a witch!"

James laughed. "Yes, I imagine it would be quite a shock."

"You grew up with all this right?" Lily asked.

"Oh yeah," James said. "All four of us."

"That must have been so wicked," Lily said barely containing herself.

"Not as much as you'd like it to be," Andy said rolling her eyes a little. "No underage magic, even for us, Lil." She reminded Lily.

"Even so, I've been reading up on this whole world, it's fascinating! History of Magic is just so interesting, I mean, I suppose Professor Binns could be a little more exhilarating but he's a ghost, what do you want from him? Oh goodness, am I talking too much?"

"Little bit," Kat said with a sly grin.

"Hey," Sirius said looking at her with narrowed eyes. "Have I met you before?"

She raised a brow. "I don't know, why?"

"You look familiar is all."

"Both have pure blood family." Andy pointed out and Sirius gave her a surprised look. "What? You're a Black, you're the purest of the pure," she rolled her eyes.

"Didn't know my family was so famous." Sirius commented. "If I wasn't ashamed of their very existence I would be excited. But back to you," he pointed at Kat and leaned in to get a better look at her. "I have met you, and you are a pure blood?"

"Yeah," Kat snorted. "My family isn't exactly on great terms with any other pure bloods and with mum marrying Steven, a muggle, that makes me the last pure blood of the immediate family, aside from mum."

"Who is you're father?"

"Avery Longbottom," she answered.

"Oi," James said. "Are you related to Frank?"

She nodded. "My dad was his uncle."

At the mention of "was" everyone fell silent; they didn't realize her mother had remarried due to the death of her father.

"Pure blood families are confusing, I don't quite understand it all." Lily said after a moment.

"You're telling me," James said leaning back. "And they're running out of people to marry, soon the pure blood line will die."

"Is that such a problem?" Sirius asked. "A world of half-bloods sounds pretty awesome to me."

"So these houses," Lily asked suddenly. "Why does Slytherin hate us?" She leaned forward clear that she wanted to learn more. "I have a friend and he got sorted into Slytherin and whenever they see him talking to me they make fun of him. These three just say that's the way it is, no help at all."

"Slytherins and Gryffindors have an old world grudge against one another, goes all the way back to the founders." Remus explained reasonably.

"Yes," Andy agreed. "But Slytherins are also filled with pig headed jerks who think everyone is trash but them regardless of blood status."

"Wow," Michelle said dully. "Way to generalize a whole house."

"Who is you're friend?" Peter asked looking back to Lily.

She smiled. "This nice boy, I met him in the playground back home one day, he was the one who told me I was a witch when he saw me levitating some flower petals in the field. We were friends for a couple years until we each got our Hogwarts letters, though I wish we could have been put in the same house. That would have been great to be with someone I know, not that you guys aren't fantastic." She smiled to her friends.

"But what was his name?" Peter asked again.

"Oh sorry," she said. "Severus, Severus Snape."

Sirius snorted and was about to make a joke along the lines of 'oh that greasy haired weirdo in Potions' but then thought better of it when he saw the look Lily shot him. It truly was icy.

"Do you make fun of him too?" She asked defensively. "Because he is my best friend and I will not tolerate making fun of him."

Sirius shook his head despite the small grin that remained on him face.

Lily seemed annoyed at this and stood up. "I'm going to bed." She said defiantly. "I'll see you all in the dorm room." She told the other girls and stomped up the stairs.

Michelle let out a long breath and followed her without another word. They could hear her trying to calm Lily down as they walked up the stairs and eventually out of earshot.

Andy snorted and allowed a small grin. "Personally I don't like that Severus kid too much," she said in a low voice as if Lily could still hear. "He's a real nice guy to her, but then whenever anyone else talks to him he's kind of a jerk."

Kat nodded. "We went to talk to her once outside when they were together by the lake and you would not believe the look he gave us, like we were interrupting the most important moment of his life."

"We've come across him," James said with a nod. "Didn't say much until we charmed his books out of his hands with that handy levitation charm Professor Flitwick showed us." He high fived Sirius.

Andy smirked. "You guys did that? We saw it all the way from the lake it was hilarious."

Kat smiled, she clearly thought it was humorous too. "And, need I remind you, made Lily stop talking to you for two days? You openly laughed." She giggled a little.

"So did you!"

"Well," Sirius said with a broad smile. "I'm glad we provide you all with good entertainment."

Remus couldn't say he enjoyed it when the other boys made that lonely kid drop his books like that. He felt rather sorry for him and if he wasn't surrounded by three laughing boys who were supposed to be his friends he probably would have. He just didn't want to loose the only three real friends he had his whole life. He would be dorm mates with these boys for the next seven years. He was in deep.

A cat ran along the ground and brushed against the back of Remus' legs pulling him out of his thought. "Huh?" He jumped looking down at his feet.

"Look at that," Andy said leaning down and picking up the calico cat that was circling around Remus' feet. "Vega doesn't normally get along with strangers. You must have a way with cats."

Remus forced a humorless laugh. "Actually they've never really been a fan of me."

"Well," Andy said letting go of the squirming animal. "She likes you, at least. Stop that," she said picking her up again so she would stop batting at Remus' robes.

"Oh no," Remus said reaching over to pet the young animal in Andy arms. "She's sweet, I don't mind."

"Jeez," Kat said with a huff. "She hated all of us for the first two nights; she still only lets Andy feed her. It's like she doesn't trust anyone else."

"Give her time, I've only had her for a few months now, she still doesn't really like my mother, she liked my father though." Andy mussed letting her go.

Sirius smiled down at the animal who stared up at him and hissed, he was immediately taken back by this. "I didn't do anything."

"You don't have to of done anything." Kat laughed.

James laughed and Sirius crossed his arms and made a face at the cat. "Thinks she's such a little princess, doesn't she?" He asked Andy who gave a curt nod.

At that moment the portrait door swung open and Frank Longbottom walked in followed by Alice Kallsworth, a third year Gryffindor.

"Oh hello," Frank said with a smile. "You all know Alice?"

She gave a small wave, "I've seen the new kids around," she said with a smile. "It's nice to finally meet you."

"I'm helping her with her Potions essay," Frank said to them. "I am… we came here to get her potions book before heading over to the library. That's what we're doing." He sounded almost defensive. "Melissa knows what we're doing," he added, Melissa was his Ravenclaw girlfriend.

"That's nice," Kat said still grinning at him.

"Go on," Frank said pushing her along. "Go get your book, I'll wait here."

"Alright," Alice said and skipped up the stairs two at a time.

Kat gave Frank a short mocking giggle. "You've been hanging out with Alice a lot I've noticed."

Frank stared at his little cousin. "You're eleven; don't talk about matters you don't understand."

Kat bit her bottom lip. "I might be eleven, but I do notice the plainly obvious."

"Wait," Sirius said with a blank look. "What's plainly obvious?"

The two girls tilted their heads incredulously. "Really?" Andy asked.

Sirius looked to James who then looked to Remus and then Peter. "We're lost," Sirius stated.

Frank nodded. "Good, stay that way," he said as Alice hopped down the last step and met him again.

She grinned at him a little out of breath; she really must have ran to get her book. "I got my book, Frank."

"Wonderful, lets go, that Grindylow essay isn't going to write itself." With one last look at them Frank lead Alice out of the Gryffindor Common Room and away from the prying eyes of his cousin and her little friends.

Kat huffed at Andy who returned the look.

"Seriously," James said. "We don't get it, he's helping her with an essay what's so terrible about that?"

Andy shook her head as she scooped up Vega. "There's nothing terrible about that, absolutely nothing at all." She and Kat both stood up at that moment. "We should go check on Lily and Michelle, make sure they're not bashing us too much up there."

"See you later, guys," Kat said and they walked up the stairs to their common room.

James snorted and folded his arms leaning back against the couch. "Can you believe that? They didn't tell us what was going on, on purpose!"

"Girls," Sirius shook his head. "And did you head how that Lily girl was talking about Snape? I mean, really, she's friends with that weirdo?"

"Probably not for much longer," Peter added to the conversation. "I mean, he is Slytherin and she is Gryffindor."

Remus cleared his throat. "Yeah, right?" He said lamely. "I mean, he's a real slimeball that one, looks like he doesn't even wash his hair."

Sirius laughed. "You're right, Remy! We'll be sure to bring that up to him next time we see him, eh?"

Now Remus felt bad, he just wanted to contribute to the conversation now the poor boy was going to be getting even more grief and it was his entire fault.

"What time is it getting to be?" Remus asked desperately trying to change the conversation.

Sirius looked down at his watch. "We have about an hour until dinner, maybe then we can ask Fabian and Gideon what all that nonsense with Frank is about. They probably know and will probably tell us." He said looking up to the girls dorms with a sneer that only a Black could give.


End file.
